Researchers at Rutgers University are investigating a potential treatment for people recently diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 who have no or mild symptoms.
The trial — called Triple Combination Antiviral Coronavirus Therapy (TriACT) — seeks to determine whether treating asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic people with a combination of nitazoxanide, ribavirin and hydroxychloroquine will reduce the amount of virus and the chance of them getting sick.
“Medications for outpatients with COVID-19 that shorten the duration of the illness, prevent the need for hospitalization and, perhaps most importantly, prevent spread of the disease to others are a critical need that are currently missing in therapeutics,” said principal investigator Jeffrey Carson, a provost at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences and a Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
The trial is being conducted with Synavir Corporation, a global health company that works with academia, industry and government to develop combination treatments for new viral infections. The three-drug combination being used in the clinical trial has been shown in experimental studies to be highly effective in suppressing viral replication.
“To successfully treat life-threatening RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, we believe that antiviral medicines must act on multiple, sequential points in the viral replication life cycle,” says Gregory T. Went, co-founder at Synavir. “We are pleased to collaborate with Dr. Carson’s team to investigate this approach to treatment of COVID-19 and potentially help improve outcomes for newly diagnosed patients.”
The researchers are seeking referrals from physicians of outpatients with a SARS-CoV-2 positive test within seven days. To be eligible, patients must have been diagnosed within the previous six days, preferably within the last two days. For more information, call 833-874-2281 (1-833-TRIACT1), email triact@rwjms.rutgers.edu or visit www.triact1.com.
